Anne Bradstreet is not necessarily in love with her husband, but with the concept of a fairy-tale love story. Regardless of how nurturing and loving Bradstreet’s relationship with Simon may have been, the flawless picture she paints of their love is unusual for the time and place. The poem Before the Birth of One of Her Children, we see direct orders to her husband being given from the grave. Her commanding tone displays the dominance she plays in the relationship. In the work My Dear and Loving Husband, Bradstreet speaks of how much she adores her husband, “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.”(108) She may have loved her husband to great lengths, but the hyperbole is evident. It is clear that she is prideful of her dear and loving husband, but there is a fine line between happiness and fiction. …show more content…
Anne Bradstreet knows this to be true, especially with the absence of her political husband. Her devotion and admiration for Sir. Simon Bradstreet can be seen in her poem My Dear and Loving Husband, where she is writing to her husband. “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold.”(108) This description of her love is quite extravagant, and possibly embellished. Due to her husband's work, he spent lots of time away from her. Bradstreet loves this man so dearly, despite the fact he is rarely home. Life in the New World blessed her with a safe home and religious freedom, that is what her love is truly for. She loves her home, her family, and safety, and her freedom, all of this comes from her spouse. Out of obligation, she admires her husband. The Bradstreet love story is not one of romance, however Bradstreet portrays such in her
“Bind them, Torture them, Kill them” or BTK for short. That was the moniker that convicted Serial Killer Dennis Rader went by in Wichita Kansas. Most neighbors described him as “Just a Regular Person.” He worked as a city law supervisor, Boy Scout leader, Church Elder. He had loving parents and siblings. But behind that mask was a sexually-driven “Monster.”
Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she
Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.
On the contrary, Bradstreet was far from being kidnapped. Because Bradstreet had different experiences than Rowlandson, the themes and messages behind her poetry is different than Mary’s. Bradstreet’s poetry was mostly about her own feelings. According to one
poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.
Bradstreet's attitude changes over the poem as she realizes that she should look at losing all of her things could be more than just a negative outcome.
Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.
Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.
in a book called The Tenth Muse under a male name and without her knowing. Anne Bradstreet’s
Anne Bradstreet’s first collections of poems are titled “The Tenth Muse” referring to the mythological Greek goddesses who inspires mortals in specific art. It is clear to see that Anne's faith remained strong during her hardships, and so was her love for children and her husband. A Puritan in thought and lifestyle but also a woman, her
In Anne Bradstreet’s poems she describes her husband’s love for her by using comparisons of money and gold and again puts herself as the less worthy one of the pair as she does with her parents. Bradstreet feels she will never be able to repay her husband for his love and further goes on in her poem “Another” (239), expressing her desires to be with him and not leave his side until they are divided by death. This particular poem demonstrated not only her true love for her husband, but also demonstrated how even the love she had for her husband was all built upon their beliefs of God. Even though, it is very hard to find individuals who hold their religious beliefs as closely as the Puritans did, there are still couples who display this same marital bond in both their private homes and in Church. This shows that even after all this time has passed, there are still people who blend their
In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.
Romantic language in literature has been used for ages to express authors' feelings for another human being. This language has been developed through out the years to create ways in which different types of romantic emotions can be expressed in writing. From the breath taking romantic novels of today all the way back to the first writers of the Bible and the romantic books of Song of Solomon and Psalms, romantic language has not only been used to express human emotions but also the role of these emotions in the culture of the times. There have been numerous authors who dared to go beyond what their society would have viewed as politically or morally correct. Anne Bradstreet is one of these authors;
Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.
In Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, Bradstreet mentions the reciprocal love her and her husband share and how she prays that God will realize the strong bond the couple shares and that their love will be ever-lasting and will persevere even after death. Bradstreet stressed how important it was to her to be a good and humble Puritan wife and her poetry exuded the beliefs, values, and ideals of Puritan life.